The French company Flying Whales, specializing in the construction of rigid airships for the transport of heavy loads, plans to create a production center in the United Arab Emirates. The managers of the start-up announced this in recent hours. The 60-ton aircraft is designed to transport heavy loads to remote locations that are difficult to reach by plane, helicopter or other means of flight.

"We would like to have an assembly line in Abu Dhabi to produce airships for all regions, from East Africa to the Middle East to India. We have started discussions, and if we create a facility here, production will begin in 2027, creating 300 direct jobs. Considering the other companies in the consortium, in total we will create around 1000 jobs", said Sébastien Bougon, president and CEO of the company.

The Flying Whales airship is an electric-powered aircraft of which a first prototype has been built to date. Called LCA60T, it has a length of 200 meters, a diameter of 50 meters, and a range of a few thousand kilometers. The start-up's goal is to obtain flight certifications from the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) by 2024. The company aims to have four assembly lines around the world: Canada, France, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

On the topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.